It didn't work out so well for him because he spent over a decade defending the patent in court while S&W made over a million dollars. He almost got Congress to grant him an extension on his patent so he could milk more from it, but President Grant vetoed it because the Army Chief of Ordinance was pissed that his patent made weapons procurement difficult for the Union during the Civil War.

Dyer claimed that White's patent litigation during the American Civil War served as "an inconvenience and embarrassment" to Union forces for the "inability of manufacturers to use this patent". Dyer went on to write that "its further extension will operate prejudicially to its interests by compelling it to pay to parties already well paid a large royalty for altering its revolvers to use metallic cartridges."